We left Barcelona and flew to Madrid on the 14th. This was National Day in Spain. We saw no signs of the holiday in Barcelona but in Madrid everything was closed and there was a huge parade. Because of the holiday we were able to go to a bullfight. I'm now very against bullfighting but Shon has a very different opinion. I'll let him explain from here:
-----------BULL FIGHTING PART, IT IS KIND OF GRAPHIC------------------
First of all let me just say I am not for the killing of innocent animals, I read that the bull is properly butchered afterwards and eaten so I guess its no real foul done by the bull fight. Which really isn't a sport or a fight in any way because in the end the bull will get killed, even if he finds some way to entertain the masses he will get put to his ultimate death in the end. Plus somehow it is seen as honorable to the bull because supposedly he has 4 years of the good life before he meets his doom. Ok that’s enough of the disclaimer. So we found the hotel, dropped off our luggage and hopped on the metro to go to the bullfight. Now I don't know what I was expecting I thought it would be more like a rodeo type of venue but it was a really nice brick built stadium. It was a round oval with all these statues and monuments on the outside. The atmosphere reminded me of a baseball game. There were vendors outside selling sandwiches and soda and people with programs. Because it was not the big Sunday fight or the two weeks of the festival of the Toro or something like that the stadium was not completely full, it might have been 50% or so. But anyway we went to out seats which happened to be next to another couple from California. So the first match is about to start and a band starts to play, although there were at least three bands in the stadium neither of them played at the same time. So the horn starts and there are about 8 matadors in the ring and the bull is released. I can only give you my interpretation from here because I am not familiar with the traditions and pageantry of the bullfight. I didn't know there were so many to start. But all these guys had pink capes. So the bull charges out and runs at them randomly. Some times they run behind the brick barrier at other times they hold their pink capes open and entice the bull to run at it. So this goes on for about 10 minutes then another horn sounds. Two guys then ride into the ring on horseback. But the funny thing is the horses are blindfolded and they have on some kind of armor. These two guys stand on the horses stand on opposite sides of the ring and for some reason the bull will charge at one of the houses. But because the horse has on all this armor the bulls horns do not hurt it or anything like that, it actually leans in to the bull and resists. The guy on the horse has a long poker type of thing so while the bull is trying to push the horse the rider is stabbing the bull right between the shoulder blades. But when the bull is attacking the horse and rider the crowd cheers loudly. So this goes on for about 5 or so minutes. Then another horn sounds and the horses and riders go out of the ring. Now the 8 guys are at it again, a few of them now have these poker things in their hands instead of the capes. So they (the matadors now with the pokers) stand in front of the bull for a second, then they run at the bull and stick the pokers basically in the same area as the guys on the horses were poking the bull. This is probably what we have all seen in photos when the bull has this ribbon looking thing hanging off its back. Now not everyone of the pokers stick every time but at this point the bull has these things stuck on its back and it also has the wounds from the horse riders so it is starting to bleed a lot. I personally think the reason behind all the matadors and the horseback guys is to take some of the energy out of the bull before its fight with the main guy. A horn sounds again and now the main matador comes out. He has a red cape. Now the main matador basically does his thing alone. The other guys are all behind the barriers ready to lend a hand if need be. So he does his thing with the bull for about 15 or so minutes then at some point he kind of does this sideways karate kid pose with his sword and this is the sign that he is about to kill the bull. I think he kind of hypnotizes the bull for a moment then takes a few steps towards it and plunges his sword in that same area as the other participants. I take it that it if done correctly it goes through the bull’s lungs and heart in one motion. At this point the bull drops dead and some guys come out and tie a rope on the bulls horns and drags it around the ring and out, leaving this trail of blood. A clean up crew comes out and cleans up the blood and they get ready for the next match. This is basically the way each match went with a few small differences. The first match we watched the minor matadors couldn't get their pokers to stay in the bull. So they kept trying so that made the match longer. Also the main matador had to stab the bull a couple times to kill it. In the end one of the minor guys has to just take a little knife and stick the bull right in the brain to kill it. The second match I guess the bull had a "come up". One of the minor guys while fighting the bull fell down and at this point the bull gored him and started trampling him. The others had to rush in, distract the bull and 4 guys ran out of the ring carried the injured guy by each limb. The door to the infirmary was right under our seats so we saw the guy was hurt pretty bad. The third went off pretty much without a hitch. It seemed all the people performed the way they were supposed to. Even the final kill only took one attempt and the bull just fell down right where it was standing. That was it we left afterwards and took the subway back to the hotel. -------------END OF BULL FIGHT DESCRIPTION--------------------------------------- After the bullfight we went back to the central city called Puerto Del Sol. There was a big statue to one of those Spanish Kings. I do not remember who it was off hand but I was surprised that there was some kind of graffiti all over the base of the statue. From Puerto Del Sol you can basically get to any of the museums or attractions and it is the main subway stop around Madrid so if you are going to travel to Madrid staying somewhere near will serve you well. Also near the Puerto Square there are a several markers devoted to the French, which surprised me also. I always thought the Spanish hated the French for their spats during the 15-1700's. A short walk from the Puerto Del Sol was the Plaza de Mayor. If you have seen any painting detailing the Spanish inquisition where the non-Catholics were being tried this was Plaza de Mayor. As I all ready stated it was the main place for trials and hangings during the Inquisition. There are balconies around the square, which were used as luxury boxes for the executions. There are also more statues in the square. One was of Phillip II he was probably the one king I learned the most about on the trip because there were at least four or so sculptures and paintings of him in every museum we went in on the entire trip. He was even in a several in Portugal. I think he was responsible for a kind of art renaissance during his reign. We basically did the walking tour from the Rick Steves book. Once again if you are going to Europe I would suggest his books because they are very informative without being too boring. So after Plaza de Mayor we walked to the Palace. Once again built by Phillip II. We did not take the inside tour although it was highly recommended but a person can only take so much 15th century art and house hold items. We just walked around the outside and through the park but it was still nice. While we were walking to another monument we walked in a under the street tunnel. Just like every other big city on the earth there is a large number of homeless people in Madrid. So anyway we were walking to cross under the street and there were obviously people living in the tunnel. But what struck me as odd was they were all on one side of the tunnel they were not bothering the people walking by but they didn't seem to be nomadic as I expected. You would expect someone to have a sleeping bag or cardboard but a few people were sleep on mattresses with box springs and bedding. So obviously this was their "permanent home". Later that night we went out to a nightclub a guy we met the previous night in Barcelona told me about. It was pretty good but Shevvi and I being our old selves bunted out at about 1:30 am although the club stayed open until 4:00 am. But the thing was it was exactly like going to a nightclub here. They also only played American music. There wasn't any music with Spanish words so I guess the bad American influence such as Nelly and Fat Joe reaches everywhere. Hahaha
Shevvi again-
I think we had better food in Madrid than in Barcelona. I had the best unagi rolls at Kumara right off of the Puerto del Sol square. The rice was normal size but the eel was as big as a deck of cards. Also we went to another restaurant around there named Puerto Rico and had a really inexpensive but delicious lunch. And the highlight of the eating was something called churros and chocolate. Churros are donut sticks that you dip in this liquid chocolate that is like homemade pudding right before it thickens up. It was so good. You can get this treat at many places around town but we got it from where Rick Steve recommended next to the Joy nightclub. Also we did the Tapas crawl from Rick Steves and the shrimp at La Casa del Abuelo is not to be missed.
Madrid had top-notch museums. I would put it up against Paris. The Prado and Reina Sofia were great but I also enjoyed the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. There were a half dozen others that all sounded interesting but we did not have enough time to visit. I heard that the Navel Museum was very good.
We used Rick Steve’s Spain and Portugal and Timeout Madrid
Here is the link to all of the Madrid Pictureshttp://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/shevvi/album?.dir=/8912&.src=ph&.tok=phFuUzDBEHK5bd4y
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